Fulham War Veteran Charles Daley Remembered


MP dedicates constituency tribute to him in Commons Garden of Remembrance

Greg Hands placing the tribute to Oswald Stoll's Charles Daley
Greg Hands placing the tribute to Oswald Stoll's Charles Daley

Greg Hands MP has made a World War Two veteran from Fulham the subject of the Chelsea and Fulham tribute at the House of Commons Constituency Garden of Remembrance this week.

He was contacted by constituents with a number of suggestions as to who should be particularly remembered. Acknowledging that the all the suggestions were very moving and equally worthy of honouring, he ultimately decided to dedicate the tribute to his late constituent, Mr Charles Daley, and the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation.

Mr Hands said, “Charles was one of the many veterans who have been supported and helped by the Stoll Foundation and I would therefore like to pay tribute to the fantastic work that this organisation still does to this very day.”

Charles Daley, who died in 2012, was one of the few survivors of the notorious Wormhoudt Massacre

He was serving with “A” Company 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment as part of the British Expeditionary Force in France when he was captured on the retreat to Dunkirk. He was fighting with the rearguard in the town of Wormhoudt when his regiment was forced to surrender having run out of ammunition and in the face of overwhelming opposition. They were rounded up by the Liebstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler Regiment one of whom came up to Mr Daley and shot him in the shoulder shouting “Englander schwein!”.

They were then marched with soldiers from other captured units with any stragglers being shot. Around 90 men were herded into a barn and grenades were thrown in by the Nazi soldiers. Sergeant Moore and CSM Jennings threw themselves on top of the grenades and were killed instantly along with those nearby. The Germans came back to kill off any survivors and Mr Daley was shot again as automatic gunfire was spread across the barn. When he regained consciousness he realised that he had been badly hit in the right leg but remained in the barn for several days with other survivors collecting water. Later two German medics came to the barn and saw the wounded British servicemen and called for an ambulance. A dozen British soldiers survived the massacre including Mr Daley who was taken to Boulogne where an English surgeon, also a prisoner of war, amputated his leg.

He remained a prisoner of war until 1943 when he was repatriated under a prisoner exchange arrangement.

Although a War Crime Interrogation Unit investigated the incident after the war, many of those responsible had been killed on the Russian front and nobody was convicted in connection with the massacre.

After the war Charles Daley married Florence James from the World’s End Estate in Chelsea and work as a dispatch clerk for John Lewis until his retirement in 1978. Due to his disabilities, they lived at the Stoll Foundation in Fulham for many years, as pillars of the veteran community there.

A cross in Mr Daley’s honour was placed in the Remembrance garden in Westminster by Mr Hands on 9 November.

Value Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More

This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism.

Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets.

We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more.

However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do.

We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area.

A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site.

One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute.

If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor.

For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site.

 


November 15, 2021